Suffering, end-of-life care and assisted dying

The ban on assisted dying means some dying people are forced to endure extreme suffering. Every day 17 people suffer as they die, despite access to end-of-life care.

Warning

This content discusses terminal illness and suffering at the end of life. Find support and information around terminal illnesses, end-of-life care, bereavement, suicidal thoughts and mental health.

Suffering despite the best care

At the end of life, some dying people experience severe pain and other symptoms that result in suffering. This can happen even when they have access to high-quality specialist palliative care.

Research commissioned by Dignity in Dying and conducted by the Office of Health Economics found that, even if every dying person who needed it had access to the excellent level of care currently provided in hospices, 6,394 people a year would still have no effective relief of their pain in the final three months of their life. This equates to 17 people dying in pain every day. Evidence suggests that if people suffering from other unrelieved symptoms during the dying process were included this number would be much higher.

Improving end-of-life care

Assisted dying and end-of-life care are complementary: it’s not an either/or choice. We support efforts to improve access to end-of-life care. Changing the law to legalise access to assisted dying could also be an important catalyst for ensuring that people get the care they need at the end of their life.

If you would like to understand more about the suffering some people experience as they die, or about end-of-life care to prevent suffering and hasten death, you can read our report The Inescapable Truth. Warning: the report contains accounts of suffering at the end of life. Read The Inescapable Truth (PDF).

Why we need an assisted dying law

We believe assisted dying should be legal across the British Isles for terminally ill, mentally competent adults. A change in the law would mean that many dying people could avoid unnecessary suffering when palliative care is not working.

Do you have a story to tell?

Telling personal stories can be extremely powerful. We are building a network of people willing to share their experience to help us strengthen the case for law change.

We know stories are very personal, so rest assured that we will not publicise anything until we have spoken to you and you’ve given your final approval.